Battle Scars
Battle Scars is the fifth episode in season six of . Synopsis The CSI team investigate the homicide of a competitive street dancer, which leads the team to an unlikely killer who has a shocking motive. Plot A young woman stumbles from the elevator into a hotel lobby, where she collapses. She’s identified as Brooke Hallworth and rushed to the hospital while Stella and Flack track down the room she came from. They follow the blood trail she left to her room–and discover the body of a man in the room–along with a pile of cash on the bed. Hawkes finds a bottle of champagne, glasses, a vase… and a ski mask in the room. Mac notices that the chain lock appears to have been forced open. Flack reports that the room was registered to Jesse Lewis–he checked in a few hours ago with a woman matching Brooke’s description. Back at the lab, Hawkes shows Stella on the 3-D autopsy that Jesse had wear and tear type injuries, which allows Hawkes to identify Jesse’s profession: he was a street dancer. Hawkes is puzzled by the weapon that killed Jesse: he found metallic powder in the fatal wound, but no bullet. He also points out an abrasion on Jesse’s neck that has a distinct fabric pattern. Stella finds that Jesse wasn’t just a street dancer–he’d gone pro. She shows Mac video from his final performance, the night he died–in which he’d won ten thousand dollars. Mac and Flack go to the club where he competed and question Dot Com–the runner up the night Jesse won the big prize. Dot Com admits to attacking Jesse after he thought Jesse stole his move, but denies killing him. Stella has Dot Com brought to Brooke’s hospital room over the objections of her friend Nick Emerson, who is sitting by her bedside, but Brooke says she doesn’t remember the man who attacked her. Hawkes reports that she has a bad concussion and there’s no saying when she’ll remember what happened. Adam is able to recover hairs and fibers from the ski mask, and prints from the vase–one that matches Brooke, and another that matches an unknown person. Mac tells him to check employee fingerprint databases. Flack tells Danny that Jesse was robbed once before: several months ago, a man took three thousand dollars in cash off of him after he won a dance contest. A suspect named Al Santiago was arrested, but Jesse couldn’t identify him–despite the fact that the statement he gave indicated he looked the man in the eye. Flack and Danny have Santiago brought in, but can’t get him to admit to killing Jesse. Hawkes is able to identify the murder weapon as simulated ammunition–a training tool that isn’t supposed to be lethal. Adam traces the powder from the round to a training range in Brooklyn. Mac goes to the facility and questions the instructor, Greg Roberts, who recognizes Jesse as one of his students. Hawkes is able to match the print on the vase to Nick Emerson through an employee database. He’s also learned Nick wasn’t just a friend of Brooke and Jesse–he was Jesse’s manager. Flack finds Nick working as a limo driver and questions him about the print. He admits to being in the room and partying with Jesse and Brooke–before discreetly leaving to give them some time alone. Stella brings Brooke to the hotel room, and Brooke recalls fighting with Jesse’s attacker and getting hit by him–and then him checking on her before leaving. Danny tells Mac he can’t find any evidence of Nick partying with Jesse and Brooke–no prints from him on either the champagne or the glasses. Mac and Flack find Nick in the club and get him to admit that he killed Jesse–but he insists it’s not what they think. Nick tells them the tragic story: Brooke was with Jesse when he was robbed by Santiago, and he felt guilty for not protecting her. He and Nick set up a fake robbery where Nick would pretend to rob Jesse and Jesse could be the hero for Brooke. Nick was supposed to fire a harmless round from the gun into the wall, but the gun went off when he struggled with Jesse, and the round hit and killed him. Brooke attacked the shocked Nick and pulled off his mask–and then he hit her. Nick was set to turn himself in until he visited Brooke in the hospital to apologize and realized she didn’t remember anything. Stella tells a shocked Brooke the story, and Brooke tells the CSI she loved Jesse. Stella brings Brooke back to the station to identify the man who robbed them the first time, and she picks Al Santiago out of the line up. Cast Main Cast *Gary Sinise as Mac Taylor *Melina Kanakaredes as Stella Bonasera *Carmine Giovinazzo as Danny Messer *Anna Belknap as Lindsay Messer *Robert Joy as Sid Hammerback *AJ Buckley as Adam Ross *Hill Harper as Sheldon Hawkes *Eddie Cahill as Don Flack Guest Cast * Raquel Alessi as Brooke Hallworth * Brandon Phillips as Mechanic X * Joe Slaughter as Dot com * Bryce Johnson as Nick 'Cool' Emerson * Vincent Laresca as Al Santiago * Nathan Anderson as Craig Roberts * Travis Hammer as Desk Manager * Richard Steelio Vazquez as Dancer * Flii Stylz as Dancer * Keith Stallworth as Dancer * Jonathan Legacy Perez as Dancer * Oren Flea Michaeli as Dancer * Selena Johnson as Hip Hop/Dance Fan See Also